Black Cake

First off, let me say that this is one of the few books where I watched the movie AND STILL read the book because I didn’t want the experience to end.

That said, this story starts off with two siblings (older brother Byron and younger sister Benny) at odds after their mother’s death. Simple enough premise. But the flashbacks, the food, the Caribbean history, and the secrets their parents kept from them made it so much more than a book about burying the hatchet after Momma leaves.

I love a good family secret in a book, and this one is… show more.

Black Cake is evocative—its title, story, and characters.

A black cake doesn’t sound tasty, but Wilkerson’s layered family drama, Black Cake, is delicious. The cake debuts on the first page, smeared on a wedding dress in the hands of the police. Some weddings are doomed from the start, as if the cake were bad. Black. Lightless. Cursed.

This legendary Jamaican fruitcake shows up again and again as this multi-cultural, multi-generation story unfolds moving between past and present, unraveling deception among Wilkerson’s well-developed characters with intriguing connections.

Black Cake is a fast-paced narrative replete with twists and turns. Can you really… show more.